Swine Herd Selection Project

Your dreams have come true!  You were on Who Wants to be a Millionaire? and won!  You have decided to invest some of your money in a swine enterprise.  You have the capacity to farrow about 40 sows per month.  You need to select your genetics for your sow herd, decide what boars to breed to and estimate the number of pigs you will have to sell.  You plan to keep the pigs and feed them to market weight.  You must also do some market research to estimate how your investment will do.

As a finished product you will need information on ten breeds of swine.  You will have to select a breed or genetic line for your sow herd and justify your reasons with sound intelligent reasoning.  You will also need to select a boar breed or genetic line and and decide to use boars or artificial insemination and justify this reasoning also.  You must access the markets and give estimates of the expected prices that you will receive for your product.

Sows

Access the following sites to learn more about some of the possibilities for your breeds of sows.  Make a record of traits such as mothering or maternal ability as well meat or carcass traits.  Be sure to include the color and identity characteristics such as the ears for each breed.

Chester White
Duroc
Hampshire
Landrace
Hereford
Poland China
Pietran
Yorkshire
Spotted Poland China
Berkshire

The following are a couple of places that offer genetics of crossbred gilts and boars for the production of uniform high quality pork.  Perhaps you would want to select these genetics instead of one breed from above for your gilts.

After you have made some notes on your choices then you will need to choose a breed or a line of genetics for your sow herd.  You need to justify your reasons for choosing.

Boars

Now you need to select your boar line.  You are wanting to produce a premium product for the consumer.  You will need to keep carcass quality features like Loin Eye Area and Back Fat in mind also the growth rate will be important to your financial position.  A few additional opportunities are below.  If you are breeding about 40 sows a month you will need 10 boars or about 85 - 90 units of semen to breed A.I.  What will these cost?

Markets

You will need to check on the markets, you need to want to cash flow this operation.  Suppose you will get 8 pigs per litter, and 40 litters per month.  This will theoretically translate into how many pigs that you can market a month at 250 pounds.  Access the market below and show your math as to your return a month for those pigs marketed.

Careers

Follow this link to find out about some of the careers and the money they are paying.  Include at least three different jobs.  Include the location of he jobs as well as the pay!!

Final Project

Your final work can be turned in as a report, poster, PowerPoint or booklet.

Remember to ...

• Show the breed characteristics for each breed
• Choose your sow herd genetics and justify it
• Choose your boar genetics and justify it
• Do the math for your sales of pigs

Quiz

Click the link below for your quiz, and follow the instruction on the page.

Swine ID Quiz